


Draco, Evolved

by islandpooka



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Smut, Good Draco Malfoy, Ministry of Magic Employee Hermione Granger, Muggle Technology, Post-Divorce, Romance, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-16 19:03:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18697408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/islandpooka/pseuds/islandpooka
Summary: A spark started in Third Year.  Now, after a divorce, a kid, and a Malfoy Inc overhaul, he's ready to make those sparks fly.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first ever Fanfiction. It's complete and will be updated frequently. The first chapter does have some quotes from JK Rowling, all of the characters and original dialogue belong to her.

"Well, at least the skrewts are small," said Ron as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch an hour later.

"They are now," said Hermione in an exasperated voice, "but once Hagrid's found out what they eat, I expect they'll be six feet long."

"Well that won't matter if they turn out to cure seasickness or something, will it?" said Ron, grinning slyly at her.

"You know perfectly well I only said that to shut Malfoy up," said Hermione. "As a matter of fact I think he's right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us as well."

Draco nearly tripped over his robes. It couldn't be. Hermione Granger, Miss Priss and chief of the I Hate Draco Malfoy Club couldn't have possibly said that she thought he was right about anything. 

To have her approve of anything he did made him feel strange, unsettled, and oddly warm inside.

***

He watched her skip up to Potter and the Weasel and felt his blood pressure rise. Look how happy she was with them! He knew it wasn't logical to feel jealous, but that didn't stop him from wanting to put a damper on their interaction with her.

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned. 

"What?" said Ron shortly.

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Malfoy, showing them his copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!"

He proceeded to read them the article about "Arnold" Weasley and the utter embarrassment at Mad-Eye's place. 

"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Malfoy, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house - if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight couldn't she?"

It was a bit far, even he knew that. But seeing Hermione looking at that Weasel with such concern made his blood boil. He knew it shouldn't, it nearly disgusted him, but he couldn't help it.

The Weasel was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.

"Get stuffed, Malfoy," said Harry. "C'mon, Ron. . . ."

That look of gratitude she shot Potter, it just made him angrier.

"Oh yea, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Malfoy. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

"You know your mother, Malfoy," said Harry - both he and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him from launching himself at Malfoy - "that expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"

Malfoy's pale face went slightly pink. He'd asked for that, but he couldn't let Potter get away with that comment. Potter had no idea what his mother had been through. 

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."

"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," said Harry, turning away.

Overwhelmed with indignation for his mother, Malfoy went to attack.

BANG!

Suddenly Malfoy was much closer to the ground and feeling peculiarly unhuman. What happened next was about as embarrassing as an encounter in front of a girl could be: to be turned into a ridiculous bouncing ferret? She'd never want him now. 

Want him? What was getting into him? He didn't want the little muggle born to like him. She had bushy hair and was a total know it all and read too much and got a cute little wrinkle in her brow when she studied... Damn. What was happening to him?

 

***

"Don't talk to me," Ron said quietly to Harry and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.

"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.

"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret. . ."

Harry and Hermione both laughed, and Hermione began doling beef casserole onto each of their plates.

"He could have really hurt Malfoy, though," she said. "It was good, really, that Professor McGonagall stopped it -"

"Hermione!" said Ron furiously, his eyes snapping open again, "You're ruining the best moment of my life!"

Hermione made an impatient noise and began to eat at top speed again.

The best moment of his life was watching another student in pain and humiliated in front of the whole school? Considering what they'd all accomplished in the last three years, that seemed a bit of an overstatement. 

Why had she run to Malfoy's defense? For the second time in a day, no less. Ridiculous. He was a prat, a snot about blood purity, and he didn't need defending.

 

***

The following weeks had Malfoy visiting the library more and more often. She was researching like mad. Something to do with elves, if he had to guess from her books. Krum was always in there too, staring in the same direction as Malfoy. 

Over the rest of term, he watched her from a distance. He wasn't sure why, he just always seemed to be aware of her. He even felt awful when the Bucktooth Curse he intended for Potter had hit her instead. She was like an infection that wouldn't go away. He nearly popped a blood vessel when he saw the articles proclaiming Potter and Granger's relationship. Purely because he was tired of Potter getting headlines. Naturally. 

***

As the years went on, Malfoy's fascination with the bushy haired muggle born grew. Crabbe and Goyle still followed him like puppies, but it was Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson who were his confidants. He told them nothing at first, but they were observant.

"Oh look, the little Mudblood knows the answer. Shocking." Zabini drawled.

"Don't call her that." Malfoy said, without thinking.

Zabini glanced over, raising an eyebrow. 

"Is that so?" he said with a smirk.

Malfoy didn't respond and that was answer enough for Zabini. 

The responses Zabini got from the occasional comments he made concerning Granger were enough to convince him that Malfoy had actually developed feelings for the muggle born, even if he wasn't willing to admit it yet.

***

The air was warm on Platform 9 ¾ and the excitement was palpable. Hermione stood with Harry and Ginny, watching her god children get on the Hogwarts Express.

"Mummy, what if I get into Slytherin like Albus?"

A very worried Lily was staring wide-eyed up at her mother.

"Well, as your father told Al, Slytherin will have a wonderful student. Who knows, maybe you'll end up in Ravenclaw like Professor Patil did."

Smiling, Lily skipped off to meet up with her siblings and cousins.

"Oh, look, the ickle Malfoy is here with his dreadful daddy." Ron sneered. 

Hermione hadn't heard him come up behind her and she jumped. She glanced across the platform and saw, indeed, Draco Malfoy with young Scorpius. No Astoria in sight, however.

"I heard his wife finally got smart and left him. But she didn't get custody of Snivelus."

Hermione and Harry both stared at Ron. Using James and Sirius' nickname for Snape wasn't exactly appropriate and made Ron sound like a teenager instead of an adult in his mid-thirties. 

Which, of course, was part of why they'd broken up. Hermione had gotten tired of maturing and Ron, well, not maturing.

"Is it true his family's company landed a contracting job with the Ministry?" Ginny asked. 

"Ah, yes, they have," Hermione said. "They're providing installation and technical support for the integration of Muggle technology into the Ministry."

"Malfoy providing Muggle technology to the Ministry. Incredible, really. Totally different bloke since his dad passed..." Ginny said, disbelieving. 

"He's still a prat." Said Ron, nastily.

"Glad you're willing to be the bigger man and leave the past behind you." Hermione said curtly. "I look forward to actually being able to use my computer and phone in the office now. Besides, email is so much faster and more efficient than those little paper airplanes we're using now."

Ron scoffed. Hermione and Harry both worked at the Ministry and were looking forward to bringing the Wizarding World into the modern era. Ron, however, was living off his fame, speaking at graduations, signing autographs, writing an autobiography, etc. He had a different floozy on his arm every week, which Hermione didn't mind. What she did mind were the headlines accompanied by unflattering photos screaming "The Brightest Witch of Our Age Not So Bright as Love of Her Life Moves On" and "Will Hermione Granger Ever Love Again?"

Honestly. She worked eighty hours a week, ran an entire department, and was working on a complete Ministry overhaul. She was the director of the Department of Muggle Technology Integration. They were in charge of keeping the wizarding world up to date on Muggle technology and figuring out how to make the Muggle things work with magic.

The Golden Trio waved to the children as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station. As Hermione turned to leave, she caught Draco Malfoy staring, it seemed, directly at her. A jolt of awareness shot through her, but she shook it off and broke the eye contact. When she looked back, he was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know, it's short, but stick with me.

How many years had it been? How many long empty years since he'd seen her? 

Oh, he saw her in tabloids daily, who hadn’t? She was famous. First for being Harry Potter’s friend, the brains behind his operations during the war against the Dark Lord. Later, she gained fame for her work at the Ministry of Magic. She was notorious for fighting against the inane “well it’s always been this way” type of thinking and started making real, meaningful changes. 

But in person? There was a good chance the last time he had seen her had been the night of the final battle against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. She had grown up, grown into her face, grown into that figure... She'd even learned to tame that bushy wild hair of hers. 

A shame, that. He liked the untamed look it had had back at Hogwarts, not that he ever would have admitted it.

He'd done his best not to think about her at all since he'd left Hogwarts, but it was easier said than done. He had finished up his seventh year at Durmstrang, his father's last ditch attempt at converting his son to be a purist like the rest of the family.

Unfortunately for Lucius, transferring his son to a brutal, Dark Arts and blood-focused school had only heightened Draco's dislike of purists instead of cementing it. If Blaise hadn't ended up there with him, Draco was certain he would've gone mad. Together, they commiserated and held the Durmstrang boys at a distance with their well-practiced glares. 

After a dreary graduation ceremony, Draco had returned home to help with the family business. Draco had considered perhaps working at the Ministry as an Auror, but his father had strictly forbidden it.

So, Draco had stuck by his father's side, keeping his mouth shut and learned how Malfoy and Son, Inc. was operated. Never let it be said that Draco did not behave as a Malfoy heir ought. No, he was his father’s shadow, watching and learning the ins and outs of the business. Learning who was able to get things done within the Ministry versus Gringotts; who was a fan of the old ways and who was willing to bend to the new era of muggleborn acceptance; and who was going to accept him once he took over and who would be resistant.

And then, suddenly, his father had died. A heart attack, the doctors at St. Mungo's had said. Nothing anyone could have done. Narcissa had mourned her husband and emptied her closet of all colors, keeping only black, deep blues and purples. It may have been an old tradition, but she intended to go into full mourning until she joined her husband on the other side of the veil. 

Draco took over Malfoy and Son, Inc., renamed it Malfoy Technologies, Inc. and promptly invested in Muggle technology. Late night walks in Muggle London had led him to vintage arcades, internet cafes, and libraries. While the technology had baffled him at first, he had been determined to master it just as he had mastered so many other subjects. In short order, he knew Muggle technology through and through, going so far as to take courses at the Muggle community college in computer technology. He'd managed to hide his hobby from his father in life, but now that his father had passed on… Well, he was free to turn his hobby into a profitable business. 

There had been talk in recent years of bringing the magical world up to date technologically, but few wizards understood Muggle tech well enough to turn the machines on, let alone use them in a manner that would expedite normal day-to-day work. 

That's where Malfoy Technology, Inc. would come in.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of these chapters are short, I know. As stated in the first chapter, this was my first foray into writing Fanfiction, started before I even began reading the stuff. It's fluffy and fun and I hope you enjoy it, quick though each chapter is.

"Miss Granger, there's a gentleman here to see you regarding that project you mentioned."

"Is your secretary always so secretive? Or is it only because I can't know about your super-secret project? Or is it because your 'project' is a boyfriend visiting you in the office." 

Ron was in her office and Hermione had given Eloise strict instructions to never say anything of worth over the patronus-fueled-intercom while he was in here. It was a surefire way to have whatever she was working on all over the news in twenty minutes flat. 

"Yes, Ron. That's exactly what it is. Now please leave so I can continue on my affair in peace." She knew she shouldn't goad him, but he just made her so angry.

Ron pulled the door open and there, knuckles poised to knock, was Draco Malfoy. He lowered his hand and gave Ron a once over. 

"Weasley."

Ron stared incredulously, then spun around sputtering. 

"Him? Your meeting is with him? He's the one you’re fooling around with?"

This was a golden opportunity. Completely unexpected, but Malfoy wasn’t going to let it go to waste. 

Gliding into the room and wrapping his arm around Hermione's waist, Malfoy smirked. 

"Didn't you know, Weasley?" Turning to look at Hermione he turned on that winning smile. "Hello sweetheart, I'm sorry I'm late. I hope you weren't waiting long." 

Malfoy leaned down towards her, his mouth descending towards hers, and Hermione was so surprised she didn't have a chance to pull away. A moment later, his lips, his firm, soft lips were on hers. Suddenly nothing mattered, nothing else was around her, all she felt was a shock of electricity and physical awareness. 

A slamming door shocked her into awareness. Her eyes flew open and she stumbled backwards.

"What in Merlin's beard was that? You--you kissed me!" She accused, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.

"Yes, very observant Ms. Granger. Glad to see that hasn't changed." He smirked at her and she could see hints of the young arrogant boy she'd known.

"But, why? What on earth were you thinking?" Her wits were scrambled. Draco Malfoy had kissed her. Draco Malfoy had kissed her. And she had liked it! What was the world coming to?

"Because he was being rude to you and I wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. Plus, he made the suggestion and I wasn't going to pass up such a decadent offer." He looked her up and down and she held back a shiver of awareness.

"Now, Ms. Granger, I believe we were going to talk about a rather large purchase of desktop computers and cell phones."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm surprised at the response to this little bit of fluff. Thanks guys!! Comments are always appreciated.

It was heaven and hell all at once. He managed to keep his wits about him through the entire meeting, even if he had to keep his chair pulled under the desk so she didn't notice the evidence of how she affected him. 

He had kissed Hermione Granger. The fantasy he'd had since Fourth Year had finally come true. Blaise would have a field day with this. Draco could already hear Pansy's cackle of glee when she found out. 

He'd heard Weasley sounding argumentative through the door, but hadn't been able to tell what exactly was being said. 

"He's the one you're fooling around with?" 

That was all it had taken to make him want to shut Weasley up.

Draco wasn't sure why exactly he'd kissed her, but it likely had something to do with the absolute disgust in Weasel's voice when he'd thought Granger would sully herself with the likes of him. Naturally, Draco wanted to grate the Weasel's nerves as much as possible. Draco honestly hadn't intended on kissing her. He was just going to wrap his arm around her and look at her with the adoring face his father had so perfected when he had looked at Narcissa. But then she had looked up at him with those big doe eyes and he'd had no choice. He had to kiss her. It would've taken an army of giants to pull him away. Only Weasel's abrupt exit had brought him back to the here and now.

"Well?"

He looked up and saw Granger giving him an expectant look. 

Shit.

“My apologies. My mind wandered. You were saying?"

"I was saying that your company has offered the lowest price by an almost unbelievable margin. How exactly are you pulling that off?"

He smirked.

"Well, because we aren't using magic on Muggle computers and employing dozens of spell-casters. We supply a special chip with magical enhancements to a custom PC manufacturer and they build it into the computers themselves. It’s more effective, more reliable, and much faster to produce."

"You're supplying magical hardware to Muggles?" Hermione’s eyes went round as saucers and she tried not to sound shrill. This was one of her biggest nightmares about this project.

"No, of course not. Our producer is a Muggleborn who took over his Muggle father's company. We're a side project for him. Completely safe and the magical components are hibernating, for lack of a better word, until the users' wands are touching the computer desk.”

**

After an hour and a half, she was impressed. It certainly wasn’t anything Hermione had expected from the man who had been raised to hate all things Muggle. He seemed distracted though. Was it possible that kiss affected him as strongly as it affected her?

Had it affected her strongly? As much as she wanted to deny it, she couldn't. In fact, she was very much afraid she wanted to experience it again. It had been over a year since she and Ron had broken up, and they hadn't been intimate for quite a while before that....

That's all this was. Pent up sexual frustration. That was it. There’s no way she could actually be attracted to Draco Malfoy, the tormentor of her childhood years. This was just the side effects of not getting laid in a while. All she needed to do was get it out of her system. She looked into the silver grey eyes across the desk from her, wondering if he'd be willing to help with that. 

What? No! She couldn't use Malfoy to "scratch the itch", absolutely not. Preposterous idea. Ridiculous. Insane. Delicious. 

"Ms. Granger?"

"What?" Her voice was shrill again.

He smirked. "Would you like to continue this meeting at the Leaky Cauldron? We both seem to be zoning out in this office."

"Yes! I mean, yes that would work nicely. We can Floo from here if you'd like." She gestured to the large fireplace she'd had installed specifically to avoid Ron on her way in and out of the building. 

"Excellent," he said with a grin that would have looked more appropriate on a wolf. She shivered.


End file.
